Improvement in railway-signals



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARSHALL L. HURD, OF DAVENPORT, IOWA.

IM PROVEM ENT IN RAILWAY-SIGNALS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,480, dated September 9, 1879; application filed February 15, 1879.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MARSHALL L. HURD, of Davenport, in the county of Scott and State of Iowa, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Railway Street-Crossing Signals; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings,

making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure l of the drawings is a representation of a front view of my improved signal. Fig. 2 is an end view thereof, and Fig. 3 is a detail of the housing.

This invention has relation to improvements in cautionary-signals for railroad-crossings; and the nature of the invention consists in certain novel arrangements and constructions of the parts of the signal, and in their mode of cooperation, as will be hereinafter more fully explained.

In the annexed drawings, the letter A designates a street or roadway crossed by one or more tracks, B. .At each side of the street are erected the posts 0, connected together at a suitable heightfrom the ground by a brace, D,,to which is attached a metallic plate, a. This brace is usually a metallic rod, but, it desirable, may be of wood. The plate a has projecting horizontally from it a spur, b, to which is pivoted so as to vibrate vertically a metallic rod, 0, having at its upper end above the said brace a flag, (1, of any suitable conspicuous colors, and at its lower end a bell,

.d, or its equivalent.

At the top of each of the, posts 0 is a bellcrank, a, pivoted to vibrate in the plane' of the said posts, and connected pivotally to rod 0 by means of the rigid rods b. At the base of each of the uprights O is a projecting arm of suitable strength, to which are pivoted the bell-cranks f, connected by means of rods f to the cranks a, as shown in Fig. 1.

E indicates angular levers vibrating in bearings on the cross-ties, one arm, 6, being vertical and alongside of the inner rail of the tracks, and the other, t", horizontal, and provided with a vertical cross-heath). The arms :i project above the treads of the rails, so that when its waving would attract a deaf man and prevent him from running into danger.

The levers after being vibrated are returned to their normal positions by means of springs s, secured rigidly at one end to the upper end of the cross-headj and at the other to the ties.

When two or more tracks are arranged side by side the crossheads j of the levers will be connected to the horizontal rod l by means of the branched chain 12. Usually the levers and their connections will behoused in, to prevent them from being clogged by ice and snow, and the connectingrods, for a like purpose, will work in pipes. The bell also should be housed in.

Sometimes in lieu of the bell I may substitute a gong.

Having described my invention, 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- I11 a signal for street-crossings for railroads, the combination, with the uprights O at each side of the street, of the brace D, the bell-rod c, pivoted to the brace and having the bell at one end and a flag at the other, the bell-cranks a at the tops of the posts, the rods 12, the bell.

cranks f at the bottom of said posts, the rods ff 1, and the vibrating spring-retracted levers E at the side of the track, arranged and operatin g substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

MARSHALL L. HURD. Witnesses:

JOHN HILL, W. J. BERNHARD. 

